"Stand together?" a cold, familiar voice echoed from the high balcony. "Is that what you call it when you're all keeping one eye on the exit and the other on your neighbor's pocketbook?"The assembly went dead silent. Every head whipped upward. Standing on the carved jade railing was Jian Chen. He wasn't wearing a mask anymore. He was draped in his full royal-violet regalia, the [Shadow Emperor's Authority] radiating from him like a physical wave of gravity. Behind him, Fubune and a veiled Ruoxi stood like harbingers of the abyss."JIAN CHEN!" Sect Leader Hu screamed, his Qi flaring in a frantic, uncoordinated surge. "Guards! GUARDS!""The guards are currently taking an unpaid sabbatical in the hallway, Hu. You should really check your employee's loyalty more often," Jian Chen said, hopping down and landing in the center of the table. He didn't even draw a blade; he just stood among their tactical maps, looking bored. "So, I heard you were discussing my retirement plan. Any good ideas

The shockwave from Lin Fan’s suicidal strike slammed into the pavilion like the fist of an angry god. Shards of white jade and ancient wood rained down in a blinding slurry, but as the dust cleared, the sight that met Lin Fan’s bleeding eyes wasn't a dead villain. It was a goddess standing beside a ghost.“Look at that, Ruoxi. He really thinks he’s in a tragedy,” Jian Chen said, his voice slicing through the ringing in the air. He didn't even have a scratch on his violet silk. His hand remained casually rested on Ruoxi’s waist, the [Territorial Qi Domination] making the falling debris hover and orbit around them like tiny, jagged planets. “Hey, Fan! You’re getting dust on the new carpet. Do you have any idea how much those sect leaders paid for this place?”“Let me go! Ruoxi, get away from him! He’s twisting your mind!” Lin Fan shrieked, his white-gold Qi flickering like a candle in a hurricane. He tried to take a step forward, but the air around his boots thickened, pinning him to th

“No... please... the crowd... they must know...” Rong wheezed, looking up at the people who were once worshiping him. They weren't cheering now. They were throwing rocks. They were cursing his name. The hero had been stripped of his skin in under five minutes.“The crowd? They don't know anything except who gives them the best show,” Jian Chen stated, reaching out his hand toward the compass. “And I’m the director of this particular disaster. System! Strip the Resource! I want the Sunstone Compass and the Public Acclaim!”[Extraction Sequence Initialized. Target: Prince Rong. Protagonist Halo: Early Public Acclaim & Resources... Draining... 40%... 80%... 100%.]The golden light from the compass suddenly stopped trying to resist. It surrendered. It poured out of the Prince's chest and into the artifact, and from the artifact, it flowed directly into Jian Chen’s palm. Rong let out a hollow, silent scream, his beautiful face aging fifty years in a heartbeat. The [Void Heart] he’d prided

"Empathy? Souls? God, I’m getting a headache," Jian Chen sighed, pacing around the old master. He picked up a small, wooden bowl from a tea table and crushed it in his hand, letting the splinters fall like snow. "I don't want peace, Ling. I want versatility. And I don't need 'soul.' I just need the data. Hand over the manual, and I might leave you enough of a Dantian to keep your blood pumping.""You seek the impossible. The Heart cannot be taken by a man who possesses no heart," Ling countered, his hands moving slowly, tracing an invisible circle in the air. "The very spirit of the manual will reject you. It will tear your meridians apart before you can even read the first page.""Master, he's telling the truth," Li Min whispered, her eyes fixed on the manual tucked inside the old man's robe. "The Mirror Root sees it... it’s not just a book. It’s a sentient vibration. If it enters your system while you're this discordant, it’ll be l

The wind didn't just howl; it tore at Jian Chen’s skin like a thousand invisible razors, eager to flay the marrow from his bones. Five thousand feet of empty space felt like a terminal sentence written in gravity. Below, the jagged, mist-covered fangs of the mountain floor rushed upward at a velocity that mocked human survival. Jian Chen’s royal-violet robes snapped like whip-cracks against the gale, his lungs struggling to suck in the thin, icy air of the descent."Master! We’re actually gonna die this time! My internal organs are shifting toward my throat!" Fubune screamed, her voice barely a thread in the roaring turbulence. She was clinging to a broken mahogany banister of the falling pavilion, her fingers bleeding as they dug into the splintering wood."Quit the whining, Fubune! Use the Cinder-Ash to create drag!" Jian Chen roared back, though the blood vessels in his eyes were bursting from the atmospheric pressure. "I told you I don